Some people are reading through the Bible this year … or, said they were going to and have already stopped.  By this time maybe they hit the instructions for building the tabernacle and their commitment gave up the ghost so to speak.  I on the other hand am starting to listen through the Bible.  If I keep it up, I don’t think it will take me a year.  And, I don’t think things like the Tabernacle will deter me … because I can just zone out (But, wait does it really count as listening through the Bible if I zone out for a little while).

Anyway … back to my post title.  It seems like every time I read or listen to law codes something sticks out to me.  Sometimes it sticks out to remind me just how distant and different Ancient Near Eastern culture was from our own.  Or, sometimes it sticks out to remind that people have always been the same.  This morning the one that stuck out was the one about a master knocking his slave’s tooth or teeth out.  Check it out:

If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth (Exodus 21:27).

A tooth for your freedom … that sounds like a pretty good deal (unless you think it’s going to detract from your marriageability).  Good enough to make me wonder if any slave of an Israelite ever tried to coax his or her master into knocking a tooth out.  Or, maybe they knocked it out on their own then put it back in their mouth waiting for their master to strike them, even lightly.  Then they could simply spit out the tooth that had already fallen out to regain their freedom.  Were there safeguards to make sure that this law was not abused by slaves …

I guess I should not have been thinking about all of that … I probably missed out on another interesting law when I was thinking about all of that.